Students showcase research at 19th Supercomputing Challenge Expo at Los Alamos National Laboratory

The goal is to increase knowledge of science and computing, expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics, and instill enthusiasm for science.

April 14, 2009

Los Alamos National Laboratory sits on top of a once-remote mesa in northern New Mexico with the Jemez mountains as a backdrop to research and innovation covering multi-disciplines from bioscience, sustainable energy sources, to plasma physics and new materials.

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LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, April 14, 2009—More than 250 New Mexico middle- and high-school students and their teachers are at the Laboratory Monday and Tuesday, April 20-21, for judging and the awards ceremony in the 19th annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge.

Sixty-one teams are participating in the challenge, said David Kratzer of the Laboratory’s High Performance Computing Systems Group, Laboratory coordinator of the Supercomputing Challenge. Middle-school students participating in Project GUTS (Growing Up Thinking Scientifically) also are scheduled to participate.

“The mission of the Supercomputing Challenge is to teach teams of middle- and high-schools students how to use powerful computers to analyze, model, and solve real world problems,” Kratzer said.

The goal of the year-long event is to increase knowledge of science and computing, expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics, and instill enthusiasm for science in middle- and high-school students, their families, and communities. Any New Mexico high-school or middle-school student is eligible to enter the Supercomputing Challenge.

Laboratory personnel can visit the Santa Clara Gallery on the second floor of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center on Monday afternoon to view posters that describe students' computational science projects.

Check the Supercomputing Challenge Web page later this week and again on Monday morning to find out when teams will be presenting.

While at Los Alamos, home of Roadrunner, the world’s fastest supercomputer, students will present their projects and take part in tours, talks, and demonstrations with Laboratory technical staff members.

The Supercomputing Challenge was conceived in 1990 by former Laboratory Director Sig Hecker and Tom Thornhill, then president of New Mexico Technet Inc., a nonprofit computer networking company. More information on the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge, including a list of student projects, is on the Supercomputing Challenge Web page.

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Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, BWXT Government Group, and URS, an AECOM company, for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.